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House Speaker Tina Kotek acknowledged last week that the 2015 Legislature will adjourn without increasing the minimum wage. But the issue is likely to remain at the forefront of political discussion. Kotek said “a legislator-led work group of business leaders, labor advocates, and economic experts will continue discussing how to increase the minimum wage.” A ballot measure seeking to increase the minimum to $15 an hour also is likely.

In the midst of a national decline, membership in Oregon’s labor unions is on the rise. Moreover, while membership is thriving, so are the salaries of some of the state’s largest union leaders – many of whom are making six-figure salaries, or double or triple the average salary of the workers they are paid to represent.

I’ve got a new piece at Reason on how the U.S. Department of Labor stepped over the line when — relying on an obscure “hot goods” provision of the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act — it slapped an order on two Oregon blueberry growers forbidding them from selling their crop until they settled a (dubious) DoL demand for back pay for workers.

A majority of attention paid to federal agency overreach in the labor policy arena during the Obama administration has focused on National Labor Relations Board actions, and for good reason. But the Department of Labor also has a penchant for excessive enforcement and overstepping its authority.

Two Oregon blueberry farmers who were strong-armed into paying $220,000 rather than risk losing an entire harvest, according to a federal judge, have reached a settlement with the U.S. Department of Labor.